How do I change the size of the chat window?

[Waldo Pepper]

I did a search but the only info I can find makes reference to changing the size of the frame in the gameelements.xml file but there's no definition within that file (I'm assuming the post was referring to FG 1,

So.... how do I resize the chat window? I want to make it larger. I've already resized the chat graphic but I can't find where I change the dimensions of the frame.

[Moon Wizard]

Changing the size of the chat window may be a difficult proposition. I've made 2 attempts at changing it myself, though it has been about 6 months since the last attempt.

Here are some random notes from what I remember:

* The chat panel does not support automatic resizing (i.e. hold CTRL and drag bottom right corner)

* The chat log/view control (chatwindow) does not support the use of a scrollercontrol.

* I implemented a slash command to increase/decrease the panel/graphic size, but couldn't get the chat controls within to resize also. (i.e. panel looked bigger, but text was still limited to current space.) Or it might have been that I got some of the text to resize, but the dice drop box was not resizable. It's been awhile.

Please keep us in the loop if you find a way to make it resizable. I've been wanting to add that capability to my ruleset for some time.

Cheers,
JPG

[Valarian]

It may be worth having a look in desktop_classes.xml


<windowclass name="chat">
<frame>chatbox</frame>
<sheetdata>
<chatwindow name="chat">
<bounds>17,15,356,485</bounds>


plus the chat area


<chatentry name="entry">
<bounds>16,526,310,20</bounds>
<state position="345,610" speak="chat_speak" emote="chat_emote" action="chat_action" ooc="chat_ooc" story="chat_story" />


The last position coordinates is the icon indicating OOC, EMOTE, etc.

Still not sure whether changing the bounds will work, but this seems to be where the frame is defined.

[Waldo Pepper]

I don't actually want to allow resizing (everything I've read since it can't be done) but rather just want to make the chatbox wider permanently. As it is now, it's ridiculously narrow for most modern monitors. While it may be ok for games using a lot of maps, for my more dialog/chat intensive stuff it would be helpful to have more space dedicated to the main focus of the game.

@Valarian - Thanks. I'll have a look and play around with them to see what happens. I really don't "get" the quadrants though in terms of why they're defined separately. They also don't see to add up to the width of the window but I haven't looked closely enough to know for sure.

[Valarian]

Waldo, bear in mind that the chat frame as it currently stands fills around one third of my screen when I play. When I'm playing, I can fit the chat frame, my character sheet and still see the buttons down the side for opening notes and the library. Make the chat frame much wider and I'll not be able to open notes without closing the character sheet. It's not that I'm playing on a small screen definition either (1248x700).

[Doswelk]

I don't actually want to allow resizing (everything I've read since it can't be done) but rather just want to make the chatbox wider permanently. As it is now, it's ridiculously narrow for most modern monitors. While it may be ok for games using a lot of maps, for my more dialog/chat intensive stuff it would be helpful to have more space dedicated to the main focus of the game.
Waldo, bear in mind the screen size of your clients as well....

Just because I run FGII with a screen res at 2560x1024 (2 monitors) does not mean my players do!

One is running on a laptop with an 800x600 screen, if I changed the size of the chat window it would severely impact on her...

[Waldo Pepper]

Have no fears - I'm not talking about resizing the chat window to something that takes up 1/2 the screen but rather just increasing its size a bit to get more out of dead space on the screen.